Contrary Quotes - Page 21

• One can write out of love or hate. Hate tells one a great deal about a person. Love makes one become the person. Love, contrary to legend, is not half as blind, at least for writing purposes, as hate. Love can see the evil and not cease to be love. Hate cannot see the good and remain hate. The writer, writing out of hatred, will, thus, paint a far more partial picture than if he had written out of love.

  Jessamyn West

  Hate, Writing, Evil

  Jessamyn West (1957). “To see the dream”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The human understanding, when any preposition has been once laid down... forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation; and although more cogent and abundant instances may exist to the contrary, yet it either does not observe them or it despises them, or it gets rid of and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.

  Francis Bacon

  Sacrifice, Support, Understanding

  10 Copy quote

• That a joint stock company should be able to carry on successfully any branch of foreign trade, when private adventurers can come into any sort of open and fair competition with them, seems contrary to all experience.

  Adam Smith

  Competition, Branches, Able

  Adam Smith, William Playfair (1811). “An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations”, p.190

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• [H]e that thinks absolute power purifies men's blood, and corrects the baseness of human nature, need read the history of this, or any other age, to be convinced to the contrary.

  John Locke

  Men, Thinking, Blood

  John Locke (2015). “The Second Treatise of Civil Government”, p.82, Broadview Press

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Certainly great persons had need to borrow other men's opinions to think themselves happy; for if they judge by their own feeling, they cannot find it: but if they think with themselves what other men think of them, and that other men would fain be as they are, then they are happy as it were by report, when, perhaps, they find the contrary within.

  John Locke

  Thinking, Men, Judging

  John Locke (1840*). “The Conduct of the Understanding; By John Locke ... Essays, Moral, Economical, and Political; by Francis Bacon”, p.130

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The nude gains its enduring value from the fact that it reconciles several contrary states. It takes the most sensual and immediately interesting object, the human body, and puts it out of reach of time and desire; it takes the most purely rational concept of which mankind is capable, mathematical order, and makes it a delight to the senses; and it takes the vague fears of the unknown and sweetens them by showing that the gods are like men and may be worshiped for their life-giving beauty rather than their death-dealing powers.

  Kenneth Clark

  Men, Order, Giving

  "The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form" by Kenneth Clark, (Ch. I), 1951.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Among civilized and thriving nations, on the contrary, though a great number of people do no labor at all, many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a hundred times more labour than the greater part of those who work; yet the produce of the whole labour of the society is so great, that all are often abundantly supplied, and a workman, even of the lowest and poorest order, if he is frugal and industrious, may enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and conveniencies of life than it is possible for any savage to acquire.

  Adam Smith

  Order, Numbers, People

  "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith, (Introduction and Plan of the Work, p. 2), 1776.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Thus the labour of a manufacture adds, generally, to the value of the materials which he works upon, that of his own maintenance, and of his masters profits. The labour of a menial servant, on the contrary, adds to the value of nothing.

  Adam Smith

  Add, Maintenance, Masters

  Adam Smith (2007). “The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: With an introduction by Jonathan B. Wight, University of Richmond”, p.311, Harriman House Limited

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• And for the authentical truth of either person or actions, who (worth the respecting) will expect it in a poem, whose subject is not truth, but things like truth? Poor envious souls they are that cavil at truth's want in these natural fictions; material instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soul, limbs, and limits of an authentical tragedy.

  George Chapman

  Soul, Tragedy, Fiction

  George Chapman (1874). “The Works of George Chapman: Plays”, p.178

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• A single assembly will never be a steady guardian of the laws, if Machiavel is right, when he says, Men are never good but through necessity: on the contrary, when good and evil are left to their choice, they will not fail to throw every thing into disorder and confusion. Hunger and poverty may make men industrious, but laws only can make them good; for, if men were so of themselves, there would be no occasion for laws; but, as the case is far otherwise, they are absolutely necessary.

  John Adams

  Men, Law, Hunger And Poverty

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 4: Novanglus, Thoughts on Government, Defence of the Constitution I”, p.304, Jazzybee Verlag

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I acknowledge myself a unitarian - Believing that the Father alone, is the supreme God, and that Jesus Christ derived his Being, and all his powers and honors from the Father. ... There is not any reasoning which can convince me, contrary to my senses, that three is one, and one three.

  Abigail Adams

  Jesus, Father, Believe

  Abigail Adams, John P. Kaminski (2009). “The Quotable Abigail Adams”, p.316, Harvard University Press

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• For men to be tied and led by authority, as it were with a kind of captivity of judgment, and though there be reason to the contrary not to listen unto it, but to follow like beasts the first in the herd, they know not, nor care not whither, this were brutish.

  Richard Hooker

  Men, Firsts, Captivity

  Richard Hooker, Izaak Walton (1839). “The Works of Mr. Richard Hooker: Containing Eight Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, and Several Other Treatises”, p.274

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Science has long been in the value business. Despite a widespread belief to the contrary, scientific validity is not the result of scientists abstaining from making value judgments; rather, scientific validity is the result of scientists making their best efforts to value principles of reasoning that link their beliefs to reality, through reliable chains of evidence and argument.

  Sam Harris

  Reality, Objectivity, Best Effort

  "The Moral Landscape". Book by Sam Harris, 2010.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Political system is contrary to everything a feminine heart stands for. It lacks tenderness. It lacks poetry. It doesn't nurture. It doesn't love. And without those things, a woman's soul is bereft.

  Marianne Williamson

  Heart, Political, Soul

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are so anxious to achieve some particular end that we never pay attention to the psycho-physical means whereby that end is to be gained. So far as we are concerned, any old means is good enough. But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.

  Aldous Huxley

  Mean, Attention, Pay

  Aldous Huxley (2002). “Complete Essays: 1939-1956”, Ivan R Dee

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When the contrary magnetic poles were on the same side, there was an effect produced on the polarized ray, and thus magnetic force and light were proved to have relation to each other.

  Michael Faraday

  Light, Sides, Rays

  7 Copy quote

• These examples of the lack of simplicity in English and French, all appearances to the contrary, could be multiplied almost without limit and apply to all national languages.

  Edward Sapir

  Simplicity, Limits, Example

  Edward Sapir, David Goodman Mandelbaum (1985). “Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture and Personality”, p.117, Univ of California Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before. Herodotus, historian If I had to name a driving force in my life, I'd name passion every time.

  Anita Roddick

  Giving Up, Passion, Men

  10 Copy quote

• God give me the wisdom to see the truth however contrary to my established beliefs.

  Robert Quillen

  Giving, Belief, Give Me

  11 Copy quote

• Wealth is attended with power, by which bargains and proceedings, contrary to universal righteousness, are supported; and hence oppression, carried on with worldly policy and order, clothes itself with the name of justice and becomes like a seed of discord in the soul.

  John Woolman

  Order, Names, Clothes

  John Woolman, John Greenleaf Whittier (1871). “The Journal of John Woolman”, p.307, Boston : J.R. Osgood

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have no reverence for any book that teaches a doctrine contrary to my reason; no reverence for any book that teaches a doctrine contrary to my heart; and, no matter how old it is, no matter how many have believed it, no matter how many have died on account of it, no matter how many live for it, I have no reverence for that book, and I am glad of it.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Book, Heart, Doctrine

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2354, Library of Alexandria

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• If the war is lost, the nation will also perish. This fate is inevitable. There is no necessity to take into consideration the basis which the people will need to continue a most primitive existence. On the contrary, it will be better to destroy things ourselves because this nation will have proved to be the weaker one and the future will belong solely to the stronger eastern nation [Russia]. Besides, those who remain after the battle are only the inferior ones, for the good ones have been killed.

  Adolf Hitler

  War, Fate, Russia

  "Enter the Bunker". "The History Place: Defeat of Hitler", www.historyplace.com. 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do not believe that the spiritual law works on a field of its own. On the contrary, it expresses itself only through the ordinary activities of life. It thus affects the economic, the social and the political fields.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Spiritual, Believe, Law

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Ronald Duncan (2005). “Gandhi: Selected Writings”, p.59, Courier Corporation

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Among modern occupations, only cult leaders and TV weathermen rival the technological visionary's ability to retain credibility despite all evidence to the contrary.

  Nathan Myhrvold

  Leader, Visionaries, Occupation

  5 Copy quote

• A dog gladly admits the superiority of his master over himself, accepts his judgment as final, but, contrary to what dog-lovers believe, he does not consider himself as a slave. His submission is voluntary, and he expects his own small rights to be respected.

  Axel Munthe

  Dog, Believe, Rights

  Axel Munthe (1930). “The Story of San Michele”

  20 Copy quote

  Show source